[Jacob-list] weak lamb

[Linda]

It's OCD - occipital  condyle dysplasia (not sure of my spelling).  I hope Fred will jump in here.  Does it show up at birth to the point that lambs are unable to stand?  My (limited, I admit) understanding is that you see more drastic manifestations as the skull grows, further compressing the spinal cord.  I routinely save skulls to look at  as we had a sheep once that was iffy in his movements.   I've not seen any deformities.  Last spring, I lost (like Trisha) the most beautiful ram lamb we've ever had.  I took him to the vet hoping to save him.  The possibilities of what could have happened were staggering.  His best guess was oxygen depravation during lambing. Another possibility was toxoplasmosis.   But, we did have a problem with the premixed feed I used that year, so maybe it was nutritional.  

I do think it's important to look for and document genetic problems - document being the key word.  And to share our failures as well as our successes.

Linda
www.patchworkfibers.com
Registered Jacob Sheep, Angora Rabbits, Handspun Yarn

On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:30:30 -0500, Betty Berlenbach wrote:
> Okay, Fred, help me out here: there is some condition, which is
> genetic, which has a "condular" in the middle of it, also something
> dogs have, having to do wi th some nerve pressing on some bone or
> vice versa in the neck area.  It will sometimes appear in jacobs,
> and manifests in weak front legs, and then sort of spastic
> movement, I think.  I've never had it but I have two friends who've
> had spastic lambs a couple of times, and I suspect this was part of
> the ACD or whatever it's called syndrome.  I may be stabbing in the
> dark, but I would guess it means that if you have a lamb like this
> with no clear symptoms of disease, and BOSE doesn't help, it may
> well be a genetic birth defect of this type and the prognosis is
> poor.  It may well run in certain lines: both these friends have
> related sheep, and both line breed pretty heavily.